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Luke cage was a Netflix Original Series based around the Marvel Character Luke Cage. It was in the same universe as all the other Netflix Marvel series, but this time it focused on the comic book character Luke Cage. For this post, I am going to focus on the first season as that is something I remember more than the other seasons. Luke Cage takes place in modern-day Harlem in New York City and in the series he uses his powers of unbreakable skin and super strength. He uses these powers to fight the crime in the city, with the main villain being Cottonmouth. This series is a fight for power in the streets of Harlem. Whether that be between Cottonmouth, Mariah, or Luke Cage, they are all trying to fight for their vision of the streets. The story portrayed black culture in a way that many TV series have not done and was the first Marvel property to portray black culture on screen. The main spot in the series was at Pop’s barbershop, a known neutral zone in Harlem. This series lets the viewer explore what the culture is like in Harlem while respecting and exploring new avenues of storytelling for a character that is often forgetting in the Marvel lineup. The struggle for power in the series is the main idea of the whole series as Luke Cage is “overpowered” when compared to those who oppose him. It’s all about how they can get more powerful to defeat him and take control of the streets of Harlem. This type of power struggle can be directly linked to the other arguments that we have looked at this semester. Luke Cage would be the “other” in the story because everyone is out to get him in the story. I feel like the creators were trying to make the viewers think about the motivations that the villains were experiencing. They explored Cottonmouth’s past, which was the best part of the first season, to fully try to explain the characters’ motivations and allowed the viewers to feel for him. It wanted to portray the struggles of Black Americans throughout their childhood and was exploring how that childhood can lead some down a dark path.

To Kill a Mockingbird is one of the most recognizable books in American Literature. It was written in 1960 by Harper Lee, and follows the story of a young girl named Scout, whose father is a Lawyer in a very conservative Alabama town. While the story of To Kill a Mockingbird mostly followed Scout and her brother Jem, the main takeaway from the story comes from her father’s actions. Her father’s name was Atticus, and he decided to become the lawyer for a black man named Tom Robinson being accused of raping a white girl. Atticus and his children face an enormous amount of backlash for defending a black man, and their lives are completely consumed by the case as it continues. Even though Atticus clearly proved that Tom had not raped the white woman, the jury would convict him anyways. Later Tom would attempt jail and be shot, while Scout and her brother are harassed even after for their father defending Tom. There was also a movie based off of the book made shortly after in 1962, which features a very famous image of Atticus defending Tom during the trial.

The big issue that had been raised with this book and movie in recent history have been its racist undertones. A lot of people nowadays group this book into something called the ‘white savior complex’, which is where a white person in a position of power helps a minority that is not, and is seen as noble in whatever piece of literature or cinema they take place in. Not only this, but To Kill a Mockingbird contains some language that I won’t repeat here, that would not be okay in any sense with today’s standards. I don’t think I, nor most people that read the book or watch the movie, have any problem with what happens with how it is perceived today. People have a problem with Atticus being made out to be a hero, and feeding that white savior complex I talked about earlier. However, this book predates a large majority of the Civil Rights Movement, so a white person sticking up for a black man was something very important for people to see in society during that time. In terms of the book or novel itself, I think it should be available to purchase but I don’t think it should be taught in nearly every high school English class like it is currently. The white person of a story being made a hero while a black person is put down in society could inadvertently just perpetuate that ideal in the eyes of so many impressionable young adults, so yes I would say To Kill a Mockingbird is somewhat problematic.

Twelve year old Dre (played by Jaden Smith) is forced to move to China because of his mothers career. Because of this, he is thrown into a whole new culture and way of life that he does not know much about. He quickly encounters the school bullies, and to learn some karate skills to protect himself, he finds a friend and coach in the maintenance man (who also happens to be a karate master) named Mr. Han (played by Jackie Chan). Dre learns so much about Chinese culture from Mr. Han, including the importance of non verbal communication and social norms that are very prevalent in China. Dre is also portrayed as hard headed and stubborn, which prohibits him from originally seeing the beauties and wonders of his new home. Mr. Han even says to Dre at one point, “You only see with your eyes. You are easy to fool”. This can be explained by the fact that Dre never really put much thought into the culture he was now in the middle of; he only judged it based on what he could see while living in America. While learning the practice of patience and open-mindedness from Mr. Han, he eventually opens up to his new culture and begins to appreciate it more. He learns traditional Asian culture and rituals, such as meditation, cupping, and of course, taekwondo. I think this plays into our class because Dre already had preconceived notions about China which prohibited him from seeing another culture without judgement. People always judge from the outside looking in without actually giving a new culture or activity a shot. That is also why so many races and cultures in this world are subject to criticism, stereotypes, and “single stories”. 

The Year of Living Danishly is a memoir by Helen Russell, depicting her year-long journey living in Denmark. She was thirty-three years old and generally unhappy living in London when her husband (whom she affectionately calls “Lego Man”), was offered a job working for Lego in Jutland. She discovers that it is statistically considered the happiest place on earth and decides this is the perfect opportunity to find out why. Over the course of her first year there, she breaks her new knowledge down into what she learns each month, and pairs it with advice for readers outside the country. In the end, she and her husband (and newborn baby) decide that they can’t imagine going back to London and begin the rest of their lives in Denmark.

Russell does a fantastic job in this work analyzing the cultural differences she noticed between England and Denmark, and even made several comparisons to America as well. While she does give some useful advice as to how we could all “live Danishly”, there were many aspects of her discoveries that displayed deeply ingrained systematic differences rather than personal changes. In Denmark, human rights have taken priority for a long time. To name a few policies, they experience free-health care, free education including university, and a thirty-four hour work weeks with an emphasis on “work-life” balance. Russell’s readers are really forced to think about how their own government’s systematic policies could be impacting their happiness.

When I read The Year of Living Danishly earlier this spring, I immediately thought of Adichie’s idea of a single story. Personally, my single story regarding Denmark was rather minimal. I had heard that it was the happiest country before, but I knew very little about the country, its’ culture, or its’ government. I think Russell’s message is very similar to that of Adichie’s, emphasizing how much we overlook when we let ourselves feel satisfied by the single stories we hear about other cultures. Her enthralling analysis in The Year of Living Danishly is a great example of how much we could stand to learn and gain when we open our minds to other cultures and their stories.

The text I am choosing to review for this assignment is the movie The Help, directed by Tate Taylor. This movie is based on the novel and takes place in the early 1960’s in Jackson, Mississippi. The film follows an eager young white writer, Skeeter as she exposes to the world to events based on true stories told by African American woman who identify as maids, or “the help”. During this time Skeeter also researches the systematic injustice within the state of Mississippi that African Americans had to deal with at the time. From the beginning the maids, like Aibileen and Minny, were hesitant to partner with Skeeter due to their distrust in whites, and their fear of experiencing repercussions. Overall the story is very dynamic since it takes place during the civil rights movement, as it analyzes topics like racism, social class, and gender roles.

Throughout the film the woman who tell their stories to Skeeter are shown doing their jobs in the households of wealthy white families. The maids are forced to do repetitive work, like cooking and cleaning, and they are even responsible for caring for the children. There are many instances that when their employers are disrespectful and or abusive towards them. The maids have limited career, so they are almost forced into this unhealthy work environment. They are limited because maids are denied  higher education to help them advance within their careers or other areas, just due to their color.

Gender roles are present within the households that are highlighted throughout the movie. Skeeter struggles to gain acceptance from her family when it comes to being a writer, and she feels forced to only be a wife and mother. Another woman, Celia, has multiple miscarriages but feels forced to hid her emotions because she wants to be a strong enough wife to her husband.

Lastly, social class is what shapes Jackson as a society. The wealthy are at the top, and they have at least one maid to cook, clean, and take care of the children. The maids that work for them are considered the working class. Whereas the upper class, who does not associate with those below them, own much of the industry and are able to provide for their children without worry. Discrimination due to classism occurs also, when Skeeter tells her editor her story idea, she did not support it at first due to its affiliation with the maids, Aibileen and Minny. Overall, this movie depicts a story during the civil rights movement that highlights many ideas that we have gone over in this class. Therefore, if you’ve never seen the movie, I recommend you watch it with your new perspective shaped by what we’ve learned.

Hindi Medium, When I saw the title of movie, I knew the film is talking about education in India. The protagonist Raj is the son of a tailor who lives in an old neighborhood. His family is not poor, but still not rich. When Raj grew up, he fell in love with Mitu, a beautiful girl from the same social class, then they married as they wished. Years later, Raj has become a well-known fashion merchant, and got his own brand and design studio, living a wealthy life, and is a well-deserved husband and father. When the daughter reached the age of school, the couple tried various means to get their daughter to enter top prestigious elementary school in Delhi. They even moved to the slums to pretend to be poor people, just to defraud the school. In the slum, Raj met the kind and honest family of Yahim. Yahim’s sincere dedication made Raj’s shocked. He saw the darkness and the nature of education, and Raj realized that the education system in India is so unfair. Raj eventually gived up sending his child to the prestigious school, instead, he sent his daughter to a normal public school, near his home.

In the film, it exposed the inequality between poor people and rich people, and the unfairness between these two classes in India. Moreover, in India, it seems that English is not just a language, but a status symbol, maybe we can give it a name as lingual discrimination. If someone speak English instead of Hindi, the society pays more respect to him. Raj speaks Hindi, and his wife Mitu  speaks English.  it is love that allows them to cross the class. I once heard someone says that Indians like to speak English, though grammatical errors are endless. This shows that the phenomenon of India’s class division is very serious and the gap between rich and poor is very large, even languages are classified. The greatest success of this film is that the director made very heavy topics in a relaxed and humorous way, though this film involves education, class, family, system, etc.

The crescendo of the whole film is the speech Raj made at the end. The speech was quite wonderful, Raj confessed a series of shameful deeds he had done to get his daughter into a prestigious school, and also revealed the ugly face of the wife of the headmaster. Usually after such kind of speech in a film,  there will be thunderous applause; however, this movie broke the convention, only Raj’s wife applauded for him, and then they quietly left. This is what the movie showed us, a serious and true attitude, because in our real life, the social barriers and cognitions actually cannot be eliminated by just a sincere speech.

The film just showed the audience of the unfairness and inequality of the education system and social classes, and I think it is great deeds for us to try our best to help eliminate such unfairness.

The movie Green Book is a film based on a true story. Dr. Donald Shirley is a world-class African-American pianist, who is going to hold a concert tour in the Deep South in 1962. At that time racial discrimination was very serious in the south, in need of a driver and protection, Shirley recruits Tony Lip, a tough-talking bouncer from an Italian-American neighborhood in the Bronx. Despite their character and racial differences, those two men soon develop an unexpected bond while confronting racism and injustices in an era of segregation.

When we are watching the film, we will find a lot of familiar things that we have learned in this class. We can find how intersectionality shape Dr.Shirley. He is a black man but not like other black people, he was brought up in an affluent environment so that when he was sitting in front of other black people in the hotel, he was so out of place since his education made it impossible for him to blend in with other black people. And then he was a well-known pianist, however, white people in the south show their respect to him only because of his talent. Except for playing time, Dr. Shirley was treated like other black people that he was facing lots of injustices and discrimination like he was not allowed to use the washroom and try clothes. Even though people gathered together for him, he was not permitted to have lunch there. There was a sentence in the film that touched me deeply when Dr. Shirley was having an argument with Tony, “Rich people pay me to play piano because it makes them feel cultural………I was not accepted by my own people since I am not like them either”. He was also treated as “Others” by all the people since black people can not understand that why would a white man serve a black man in a time of racism and white people in the South hate black people so that no one wants to accept him. I think that is the reason why he is always alone.

I think the author was trying to express that when people are facing discrimination or injustices, they should maintain their self-respect and rally against their inequality. Sometimes, a moment’s peace is achieved by forbearance. However, if people want to get out of unfair treatment, they should learn how to live with dignity and fight for their freedom. Like Dr. Shirley, in the beginning, when he was facing injustices, he just gave up his inherent rights and did not want to have a conflict with other people. By spending time with Tony, he learned how to deal with injustices and stand up to unfair treatment. Man is born great because they have been against fate.

Work cited:

https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/green-book-2018

Wandavision is a television mini series based on the superhero Wanda Maximoff/The Scarlet Witch, a Marvel Studios/Marvel Cinematic Universe character. On the surface, Wandavision appears to be a satire of post-1950 family sitcoms such as I Love Lucy, The Brady Bunch, Full House, Malcolm In the Middle, and Modern Family.  Wanda and her husband, Vision, play house as a happily married couple dealing with wacky problems such as disastrous dinner parties and adapting to weird suburban culture within the quirky town of Westview. The series takes a dark turn as it is revealed that the characters’ “reality” is actually a metaphysical fabrication of Wanda/The Scarlet Witch’s subconscious dubbed “the Hex”. While Wanda believes she is controlling reality and the people around her, it is revealed that the antagonist, Agatha Harkness, is actually controlling the minds of the people of Westview. In the end, Wanda accepts her role as The Scarlet Witch and defeats Agatha which releases the minds of the people of Westview. 

The lead characters Wanda and Vision struggle with power throughout the entire season. The beginning of the season picks up after the last Avengers movie, where Wanda’s romantic love interest and now husband, Vision, apparently dies. She subconsciously uses her powers to create the Hex as her own reality and recreates Vision. Throughout the season, we learn that the creation of the Hex is a coping mechanism for Wanda to deal with the recent death of Vision, which has left her completely heartbroken and lonely. She created a wacky mystical world full of old sitcoms from her memories as a child. These memories give her a sense of comfort and security. It is ironic because Wanda is seemingly all powerful in the Hex, but she is powerless in reality to save Vision. Vision has amnesia throughout most of the season, which we learn later is because he is actually just a creation of Wanda’s power, and not the actual Vision. Vision’s inability to remember the amazing superhero he was before the Hex leaves him powerless and confused about his origin and purpose in the world other than to be Wanda’s husband. 

Identity is a more lighthearted theme in Wandavision. Each episode is set in a different era of TV, and this allows us to observe the similarities and differences between Americans in popular culture throughout the past several decades. Throughout every episode, Wanda and Vision are husband and wife. As they surf through decades, Vision is always a working man and Wanda is always a stay at home mom. This is representative of popular culture in the Western world: married couples are expected to stay together and men are supposed to be breadwinners. An interesting difference in the different time periods/episodes is how honest and frank Vision and Wanda are with each other about intermarital issues. In the earlier episodes set in the 1950s-1970s, Wanda and Vision sweep many problems under the rug. As time periods grow closer to the present, Wanda and Vision begin to speak more openly about their problems. 

I found this show to be super interesting as a history nerd but also a Marvel Studios fanatic!

The movie The United States vs. Billie Holiday is a true story of Holidays life and song career and how the singing of “Strange Fruit” got her into a lot of trouble. The movie starts off with an interview Billie is having with a white lady and the first question she asks after telling Billie how much she loves her is “what’s it like to be a colored woman” (2.45). This sets the tone to show how people of color were treated and defined by their skin. Throughout it we see the struggles that Black people encountered and the way it effected even Holiday as she was trying to show her view on the situation in America.

We see that because she sings  the controversial song “Strange Fruit” she is targeted by the government because it is “un-american” and shows something negative going on in America. The FBI uses a Black agent to get her arrested and this shows how the government tries to pin Black people against their own community to “better” them. Even when she stops singing the song they still try and frame her because she is a strong Black women and that to the white man is a threat. Throughout the film we see how the white agent wants to take her down and multiple times plants drugs on her to do so. The whole film shows the injustices the Black community has to deal with daily.

The agent that had her arrested on her death bed was rewarded by JFK. “…earned for you the respect of the world community” (2:02:00). This tells us how white men are praised at the hands of Black lives. The film also shows us the lack of progression we have made on this injustice. Stated at the beginning of the movie it says, “In 1937 a bill to finally ban the lynching of African-Americans was considered by the senate. It did not pass” (1:00) and the movie ends by stating, “In February 2020, the Emmett Till anti-lynching act was considered by the senate. It has yet to pass” (2:03:00).

I think the director wanted us to think about the criminalization of Black Americans and the way systems are set up against them. This movie makes us think about how many times this has happened and how many people in power have hate on their mind. We also are shown that a century later we are still dealing with the same injustices, the question is what can we do to make the next century different.

All American is a television series involving sports and drama, which features a young All-Star football player, Spencer James. The series lets viewers in on Spencer’s story, which is inspired by true events. Spencer is an African American football player from a small town in California, Crenshaw. He is offered a spot on the Beverly Hills football team, and he accepts the offer because this team allows him to open his profile to big recruiters and top football schools. During the transfer between schools, the viewers are introduced to many characters and close people/friends in Spencer’s life. The TV show does a great job of displaying Spencer’s relationships with many of the characters and expresses the impact that each character has on his life and football career.  

All American puts a lot of emphasis on Spencer’s transition from a small-town school in a rough area of California to Beverly Hills. The TV show proved how much of a drastic difference there is between the two cities. When Spencer arrives in Beverly Hills, we immediately see how wealthy the area was. The first thing we see when he arrives is high school students driving expensive cars, wearing nice clothes, and massive houses in the background. All very different from what Spencer was used to.  

The series talks about several social issues and in(justices) including race, mental health issues, gang violence, addiction, and poverty. All American gives viewers an inside look at all of these very important and relevant issues today. Throughout the show, we can see how much all of these ideas (race, poverty, addiction, violence) affect people’s mental health. I think the show does a wonderful job of spreading awareness and bringing attention to these important topics. All of the topics mentioned are things that impact people’s everyday lives and after watching the entire series, I felt that I had gained knowledge on a lot of these issues and it made me more aware of how common these things are. It also showed how the characters on the show were able to talk about what was hurting them, making the relationships between the characters so strong. All in all, I just really loved how eye-opening this series was and how much it was able to relate to everyday scenarios.